Addiction insights and advice.

[Vynce]

Hey guys, I've been through a truck load of crises' in the past 14 months. Truck load is the keyword here, since I got rolled over by a construction truck on an island road in Thailand. And after having to lay in hospital beds for a good 6 months (around 30 full anaesthetic surgeries) I developed a deep mental and physical addiction to all those hospital narcotics. Mainly fentanyl and good ol' morphine. Which administered intravenously melts away all your physical and psychological trauma like a beam of Gods love. Only for 20 minutes though, then your suffering continues. 

Anyhow, my intention with this post is to share some insights and advice on how to tackle addiction. Since I'm on a really good path to free myself from the opioids. Just some minor medication left till I'm completely addiction free. 

Alright here are my main learnings:

1. Be honest about that the drugs are not the problem. In fact they are the solution to some underlying problem

Of course they are a severely health compromising solution, but they are a solution nonetheless. So whats the actual problems that needs to be faced, in order to render the drugs useless?

In my case, it was physical pain and later nihilism and depression. Funnily enough morphine was used as an anti-depressant around the WW2 era. So having that cleared out I managed to tackle the depression problems with better medical solution than just taking more opioids. Additionally my physical pain lessened with all the surgeries, helping me with that problem as well.

2. The opposite of addiction is not sobriety. Its social connection and or following a meaningful activity.  

Have you ever wondered why addicts are usually alone and or unemployed? And have you also wondered why people, with a clear life purpose and are integrated in a supportive social structure never seem really to like drugs? Exactly. To those people the side effects of drugs make them seem like a stupid idea. 

But not to those people, who are devoid of meaning and alone. Being alone and purposeless is the number one driving factor for drug-use motivation. Im sure you notice this dynamic in yourself right? When do you usually pick up your phone? When are you prone to numb yourself with whatever medium or substance that suits you the most? Maybe its food, social media, porn.. This dynamics gives you a little taste in how any medium of addiction is really a solution to loneliness or nihilism. 

In honouring this dynamic, you already acknowledged the deeper problem of your addiction.

In my case, I noticed that working physically with others around a garden, with animals or homestead project fixed my compulsory thought pattern around drug-use. Of course the withdrawal symptoms are still there, but they are way less, compared to my time living in an apartment being alone most of the time. Nature seems to play a component here as well.

Big game changer.

3. Cold turkey does not work.

- If 1. and 2. aren't resolved, you can never leave yourself without the drug. Focus on those first and then you can wean off slowly. The slower the better. In my case, I took me about 8 months to come from a high IV-opioid dose to a low-moderate opioid dose. Every attempt to short cut this process lead to even stronger backlashes into the addiction. Cold turkeying will only make it worse. You can't really win anything with that strategy. 

Alright thats it. feel free to message me if you struggle with some kind of serious addiction. Maybe there is something I can help you with there.

[Sugarcoat]

You’re strong for keeping yourself going through all of that. Great that it’s getting better for you and you’re able to help others with your story.

[Javfly33]

Great and on point advices. As a functional (but somewhat tired of the habit) opiate user I agree with all of what you said.

On 18/11/2024 at 8:16 PM, Vynce said:

Hey guys, I've been through a truck load of crises' in the past 14 months. Truck load is the keyword here, since I got rolled over by a construction truck on an island road in Thailand. And after having to lay in hospital beds for a good 6 months (around 30 full anaesthetic surgeries)

Damn, you lived again.

Do you remember anything of the accident?

[Beans]

This is fascinating to me, because I’ve always wondered what goes through people’s mind or really wondered why people become addicted or how this happens. Your story is really interesting to me. 
my dad suffered with serious alcoholism when I was a child. He couldn’t acknowledge it was a problem for a very long time.
i have a habit of saying what’s on my mind. In result as a teenager I told my dad they were an alcoholic because of how heavy and often they drank only to be met with hostility and anger. 
My dad is extremely old school and did end up cold turkeying it. (WHICH CAN KILL YOU) 

They had a gastric bypass 

and so they become drunk easier 

they don’t drink as much, but even then. 
I’ve heard him say that he could feel his body/mind saying “ooooh don’t you remember that you love this?”  Meaning loving the feeling alcohol gives him.
 

addiction 

is like a ghost and i can’t help but worry for him

i don’t hold any resentment towards him.

i just hope he heals from whatever is haunting him